Welfare is a snare that traps people into being lazy and expecting every hard working American to support them. Yes, I know that some people are physically unable to work or can’t find a job in today’s Obama economy, but there are millions of welfare recipients that are just flat out lazy and don’t want to work as long as we feed, clothe and house them at our expense.

Case in point is Jason Greenslate. He first appeared on Fox News purchasing lobster with his food stamps. Recently, Sean Hannity of Fox News interviewed Greenslate to ask him about his welfare lifestyle. Hannity pointed out that Greenslate drives a Cadillac Escalade, goes to strip clubs on a frequent basis and he hasn’t worked for a year. Greenslate replied that he thinks of his band practice as his job, even though he’s not getting paid to practice.

Hannity then asked Greenslate who does he thinks pays for his food stamps and free healthcare. Greenslate replied:

“Government taxes us, the people.”

To which Hannity responded:

“Not you, because you’re not paying taxes.”

Greenslate said he has paid taxes but Hannity reminded him that he hasn’t paid them in a year.

Hannity then pressed the point, telling the welfare bum that in California, the federal tax rate is 40%, state tax is 13.5% and then property tax, sales taxes and so on so that close to 60¢ of every dollar they earn goes to taxes. Then he said that Greenslate was just taking their money and doesn’t care. Greenslate responded saying he does care and he’s thankful to the people of California and the United States.

Hannity pushed him about taking advantage of the system; for just practicing his music all day while hard working people pay for his food and healthcare. Greenslate said that he’s not taking advantage of the system since he qualifies for the system that is set up the way it is.

Greenslate at one point asked Hannity what he wanted from him and Hannity responded:

“I want you to work. I want you to realize that you’re taking other people’s money and you’re living a selfish life. What if I get you a job?”

Greenslate: “I have a job. I grind every day.”

Hannity: “What if I get you a job that pays you money so you don’t have to live off the generosity of the American taxpayer?”

Hannity: “No, you want to be an artist, man. You want to cool and hang out and your job is playing music, but here’s the reality: you’re basically stealing from other people. You’re taking their money. You’re an able bodied guy. You can go to work and you don’t want to go to work because you like your lifestyle playing music. If I had my way, I wouldn’t work either if everyone else would pay for my stuff. Why don’t you care about the people that pay for your little lifestyle? Surfer lifestyle. Why don’t you care about them? That’s taking money away from their kids. That’s taking money away from their time to pursue their dreams. Don’t you care about that?”

Greenslate: “Taking money away from them for their dreams, so they can have dreams and I can’t have dreams? I don’t understand that.”

Hannity: “No, you work a job. Get money in your pocket. Get your own place and then in your spare time you pursue your dream….If I could get you a job that would pay you $80,000 a year driving a truck in North Dakota would you take it?”

Greenslate: “No!”

Hannity: “Nothing left to say.”

I believe there is something to say. When I was out of work for nearly two years, I had to prove that I was job hunting and putting in applications and resumes on a weekly basis just to keep my unemployment benefits. I didn’t receive food stamps and I didn’t get free healthcare.

I firmly believe that people receiving any form of government aid, be it unemployment, food stamps, housing and healthcare, should have to prove on a regular basis that they are truly deserving of it. They also need to take a monthly drug test to make sure they are not using our money to pay for their drugs. After all, many of us have to take drug tests to keep our jobs so we can pay our taxes that support their lazy lifestyle.

In the case of someone like Jason Greenslate, he is able to work, but won’t because of his band practice, so he needs to be cut off from all government assistance and forced to get a real job. Greenslate and the growing number of deadbeats like him reminds me of a warning that Benjamin Franklin gave us over 230 years ago about welfare and how it only leads to more poor people:

“In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries that the more the public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. There is no country in the world where so many provision are established for them (as in England); so many hospitals to receive them when they are sick or lame, founded and maintained by voluntary charities; so many almshouses for the aged of both sexes, together with a solemn general law made by the rich to subject their estates to a heavy tax for the support of the poor. Under all these obligations, are our poor modest, humble, and thankful? And do they use their best endeavors to maintain themselves, and lighten our shoulders of this burden? On the contrary, I affirm that there is no country in the world in which the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and insolent. The day you passed that, you took away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, but giving them a dependence on somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health, for support in age or sickness.”

“In short, you offered a premium for the encouragement of idleness, and you should not now wonder that it has had its effect in the increase in poverty. Repeal that law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. Saint Monday and Saint Tuesday will soon cease to be holidays. Six days shalt thou labor, thought one on the oldest commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.” [The Real Benjamin Franklin: Part II: Timeless Treasures from Benjamin Franklin, Prepared by W. Cleon Skousen and M. Richard Maxfield. National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2008, Pp 453-4.]